HCI 102 MODULE 1

Question 1

A central concern of interaction design is to develop interactive products that are usable.

Answer 1

Good and Poor Design

Question 2

You are staying at a hotel for a week while on a business trip. You
see a blinking red light on the landline phone beside the bed. You are not sure what this means, so
you pick up the handset.

Answer 2

Voice-Mail System

Question 3

** It uses familiar physical objects that indicate visually at a glance how many messages have been left.
** It is aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to use.
** It requires only one-step actions to perform core tasks.
** It is a simple but elegant design.
** It offers less functionality and allows anyone to listen to any of the messages.

Answer 3

The marble answering machine

Question 4

Who created The marble answering machine?

Answer 4

Durrell Bishop

Question 5

Each one is different in terms of how it looks and works. Many have been designed with a dizzying array of small, multicolored, and double labeled buttons (one on the button and one above or below it) that often seem arbitrarily positioned in relation to one another.

Answer 5

Remote Control

Question 6

a digital video recorder that was originally developed to enable the viewer to record TV shows.

Answer 6

TiVo

Question 7

the design of interactive products and services in which a designer’s focus goes beyond the item in development to include the way users will interact with it. Thus, close scrutiny of users’ needs, limitations and contexts, etc. empowers designers to customize output to suit precise demands.
about creating user experiences that enhance and augment the way people work, communicate, and interact

Answer 7

Interaction Design (IxD)

Question 8

• a useful model to understand what interaction design involves.

Answer 8

The 5 dimensions of interaction design

Question 9

5 dimensions of interaction design

Answer 9

1D: Words
2D: Visual representations
3D: Physical objects or space
4D: Time
5D: Behaviour

Question 10

especially those used in interactions, like button labels—should be meaningful and simple to understand. They should communicate information to users, but not too much information to overwhelm the user.

Answer 10

Word

Question 11

• This concerns graphical elements like images, typography and icons that users interact with. These usually supplement the words used to communicate information to users.

Answer 11

Visual representations

Question 12

• Through what physical objects do users interact with the product? A laptop, with a mouse or touchpad? Or a smartphone, with the user’s fingers? And within what kind of physical space does the user do so?

Answer 12

Physical objects or space

Question 13

• While this dimension sounds a little abstract, it mostly refers to media that changes with time (animation, videos, sounds). Motion and sounds play a crucial role in giving visual and audio feedback to users’ interactions. Also of concern is the amount of time a user spends interacting with the product: can users track their progress, or resume their interaction some time later?

Answer 13

Time

Question 14

• This includes the mechanism of a product: how do users perform actions on the website? How do users operate the product? In other words, it’s how the previous dimensions define the interactions of a product. It also includes the reactions—for instance emotional responses or feedback—of users and the product.

Answer 14

Behaviour

Question 15

refers to how a product behaves and is used by people in the real world.

Answer 15

The user experience

Question 16

• define it as encompassing “all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

Answer 16

Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman (2014)

Question 17

for a space mission, intended to be used by teams of scientists working in different parts of the world, will have quite different needs from one targeted at customers and sales agents, to be used in a furniture store to draw up kitchen layout plans.

Answer 17

• A collaborative planning tool

Question 18

can also help designers appreciate that one size does not fit all; what works for one user group may be totally inappropriate for another. For example, children have different expectations than adults about how they want to learn or play.

Answer 18

• Understanding individual differences

Question 19

and what they do can also reveal incorrect assumptions that designers may have about particular user groups and what they need. For example, it is often assumed that because of deteriorating vision and dexterity, old people want things to be big—be it text or graphical elements appearing on a screen or the physical controls, like dials and switches, used to control devices.

Answer 19

• Learning more about people

Question 20

is also an important concern for interaction design, particularly for products intended for a diverse range of user groups from different countries. An example of a cultural difference is the dates and times used in different countries.

Answer 20

• Being aware of cultural differences

Question 21

refers to the extent to which an interactive product is accessible by as many people as possible. Companies like Google and Apple provide tools for their developers to promote this. The focus is on people with disabilities.

Answer 21

Accessibility

Question 22

means being fair, open, and equal to everyone

Answer 22

Inclusiveness

Question 23

(such as loss of vision or hearing)

Answer 23

Sensory impairment

Question 24

(having loss of functions to one or more parts of the body, for example, after a stroke or spinal cord injury)

Answer 24

Physical impairment

Question 25

(for instance, learning impairment or loss of memory/cognitive function due to
old age or a condition such as Alzheimer’s disease)

Answer 25

Cognitive

Question 26

refers to ensuring that interactive products are easy to learn, effective to use, and enjoyable from the user’s perspective. It involves optimizing the interactions people have with interactive products to enable them to carry out their activities at work, at school, and in their everyday lives.

Answer 26

Usability

Question 27

a general goal, and it refers to how good a product is at doing what it is supposed to do.

Answer 27

Effectiveness

Question 28

refers to the way a product supports users in carrying out their tasks.

Answer 28

Efficiency

Question 29

involves protecting the user from dangerous conditions and undesirable situations.

Answer 29

Safety

Question 30

refers to the extent to which the product provides the right kind of functionality so that users can do what they need or want to do.

Answer 30

Utility

Question 31

refers to how easy a system is to learn to use. It is well known that people don’t like spending a long time learning how to use a system.

Answer 31

Learnability

Question 32

refers to how easy a product is to remember how to use, once learned. This is especially important for interactive products that are used infrequently.

Answer 32

Memorability

Question 33

used by interaction designers to aid their thinking when designing for
the user experience.

Answer 33

Design Principles

Question 34

The more visible functions are, the more likely it is that users will be able to know what to do next

Answer 34

Visibility

Question 35

Related to the concept of visibility is feedback. This is best illustrated by an analogy to what everyday life would be like without it.

Answer 35

Feedback

Question 36

The design concept of constraining refers to determining ways of restricting the kinds of user interaction that can take place at a given moment.

Answer 36

Constraints

Question 37

refers to designing interfaces to have similar operations and use similar elements for achieving similar tasks

Answer 37

Consistency

Question 38

used to refer to an attribute of an object that allows people to know how to
use it. At a simple level, to afford means “to give a clue”’ (Norman, 1988).

Answer 38

Affordance